


Child's Play II: The River Of Dreams

by Kyer



Series: Child's Play [2]
Category: DCU, DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Humiliation, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Myster, Songs feature heavily for a prominent character, Supernatural - Freeform, Surreal, Suspense
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-02-16
Updated: 2013-09-18
Packaged: 2017-11-29 06:11:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/683743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kyer/pseuds/Kyer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Continues from Child's Play: Wayward Son.<br/>Can't suggest strongly enough that you read that first!<br/>.<br/>Wally is trapped in another dimension, but at least he's not alone.<br/>Or is that a good thing?</p>
<p>    <em>“People think dreams aren't real just because they aren't made of matter, of particles. Dreams are real. But they are made of viewpoints, of images, of memories and puns and lost hopes.”</em><br/>― Neil Gaiman</p>
<p> </p>
<p>  <em> We all end in the ocean</em><br/><em>We all start in the streams</em><br/><em>We're all carried along</em><br/><em>By the river of dreams</em><br/><em>In the middle of the night.</em><br/>-- Billy Joel</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Delta Blues

**Author's Note:**

> If you haven't read Part 1: Wayward Son, then this won't make much sense at all.
> 
>  
> 
> _In the River of Dreams_  
>  _Not is all as it seems._  
>  _Once you realize this fact_  
>  _You'll see where this leans._  
>  _It's all cast in shadow,_  
>  _It's darkness on black_  
>  _And the only true question:_  
>  _Is if he'll come back._  
>  ~Kyer
> 
> This story is a SONGS fic. Songs strongly effect the plot and are part of the plot. I've tried to be diligent in properly giving credit for each song, because none of them are mine any more than DC's creations are. Same with the quotes. This fanfiction (as all my stories) are for my own pleasure and hopefully the pleasure of others. I derive no profit from my work other than the satisfaction to be had from thinking about my favorite things.
> 
> If someone wants their lyrics or quote removed then please pm or review stating so. I love musicians and creators and have no wish to offend them. Nor would I play the whole songs even if allowed to do so here. I use the whole lyrics since these are readily out already on several sites. Again, if that offends, let me know and I'll take it out of the chapters, truncate it to a line or two, or just leave the name and creator...whatever is okay with the owners.
> 
> Let me say this though....many of the CD's I have were purchased because a fanfic or a fan video on the Net reminded me of or made me aware of the material and I loved it so much I went out and got the music CD.

 .

 

>  
> 
> "A flash of lightning is how it always ends and begins for a speedster, a flare from the energy field we all draw our abilities from telling us it's time to come home. This is where the career of the Flash was supposed to grind to an abrupt and sudden stop. Who am I to disagree?" —Wally West, The Flash #140
> 
> .
> 
> .
> 
> _Put on my blue suede shoes and I boarded the plane._
> 
> _Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues in the middle of the pouring rain._
> 
> _W.C. Handy -- won't you look down over me?_
> 
> _Yeah, I got a first class ticket, but I'm as blue as a boy can be._
> 
> _._
> 
> _Then i'm walking in Memphis!_
> 
> _Was walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale._
> 
> _Walking in Memphis!_
> 
> _But do I really feel the way I feel?_
> 
> _._
> 
> _Saw the ghost of Elvis on Union Avenue,_
> 
> _Followed him up to the gates of Graceland then I watched him walk right through._
> 
> _.Now security they did not see him; they just hovered 'round his tomb._
> 
> _But there's a pretty little thing -waiting for the King!- down in the Jungle Room!_
> 
> _~~Lyrics from: Walking in Memphis sung by Marc Cohn_
> 
> _._

* * *

.

 .

[One nano-second previous: The Flash Museum plaza/ Central City, MidWestern USA]

.

Ebony talons reaching with a speed too fast to avoid.

     Almost on him.

          Fear!

               He was going to _die_.

(Okay, he had already agreed to and accepted death-sure- and was no coward, _scared shitless ohellyeah,_ but no coward, nope; still, agreeing beforehand and actually _seeing_ \--and that was just with the aid of peripheral vision, mind you-- _The Reaper coming at you_ in all it's sickening...deathness...were two entirely different corn stalks...)

_I'm going to die!  I'm--!_

_S h i_ **_f_** _t i_ ** _n g..._ **

**_.  
_ **

**** _._ **_  
_**

**** _._ **_  
_**

 

* * *

**[Time is innapplicable: The Delta]**

**.**

 

Something was tugging at him rather insistently, steadily pulling him along...somewhere just a split millisecond before the spiky fingers touched him.

_What?_

It was too bright!

_The?_

He couldn't see!

_Hell?_

He felt nauseous!

Hewasgoing--

 

 

 

_"I hear your voice, it's like an angel sighing._

_I have no choice I hear your voice, now I'm flying._

_I close my eyes....oh God I think I'm falling...out of the sky, I close my eyes..._

_Heaven help me!_

_**...In** the **midnight** hour, **I** can feel your **power....** _

_**...I hear yo** u ca **ll my n** am **e and it** feels l **i** ke **...Home.** _

_**....Just l** ike a **...prayer--** no **choice...** _

_**...yo** u **r na** m **e...can..."** _

 

  
**\--to _puke_ likehe'dnever...**

**...puked...**

**...before?**

**Or maybe not.**

**The feeling of being suddenly ill had left along with his terror.**

**So had Central City.  
**

**And the sky.  
**

**And the ground.  
**

**And...oh, say....everything that had been there just a moment previously because it was like someone from the Department of Eternity had forgotten to pay the light bill.  
**

**Well...  
**

**...okay.  
**

**Weird, yet not beyond superhero-level parameters of weirdness.  
**

**What the speedster considered being more curious was that for a few moments after some new monster had disappeared before his eyes Wally had been certain he had heard a voice singing** **in the most wondrous tones and at more than your 'normal' speed. This music had seemed to be everywhere before it started wavering...then was abruptly cut off as he was yanked down and away from his momentary brush with harmonic bliss. It was only then when the voice was gone that Wally realized he'd been singing along with it.**

**Wait...he was still doing it.**

**_Madonna's Just Like A Prayer?_  
**

**Immediately, Wally stopped singing, alert and feeling more than a little self conscious.**

  
**Did someone hear him?**

**Too dark to tell.  
**

**_Crap._  
**

**.  
**

**Wally craved music, always had done so.  Maybe it stemmed from some prenatal memory of his mother singing lullabies to her unborn son, he didn't really know because as God as his witness his parents hadn't exactly been otherwise musically inclined.  He just knew he adored music whether it had lyrics or was purely instrumental.  
**

**Well, adore was not a strong enough word.**

**Wally _loved_ music.  
**

**Breathed music.  
**

**Knew all the Pop Top 40 charts since they started to collate lists of such things.  
**

**More, Wally loved to _sing_.**

**Being a speedster likely made the trait stronger, but West had always been a doer more than a thinker.  His team mates had testament of this _Flash quirk_ via his impulsive actions, but what they were not so aware of was that this need to move around carried over into more than just his hero job.  
**

**Living in a sped up world equated to much more than just running around in a scarlet and gold jogging suit and wolfing down enough carbs to make a dieter faint merely contemplating the calorie numbers.  
**

**For instance, Wally didn't just eat food like a living vacuum cleaner on steroids, he could cook complicated meals with the stuff too.  
**

**No, really; he could.**

**He even still possessed a _Kiss The Short-Order Chef_ apron and matching oven mitts (gag gift from his Aunt Iris, judge her, not him.)  
**

**Usually he didn't have the time while at work or while stopping the odd rampaging robot (which accounted for his junk food addict rep with the League), but at home in the peace of his apartment he chopped and seasoned like a pro and enjoyed the activity.... _while snacking a lot, yes, because cooking involved sections that simply could not be sped up due to certain natural laws being a pain in a speedster's ass_ , but he still enjoyed the culinary arts.  
**

**And yeah, he _could_ taste the delicate flavors whithin his gastronomic creations, and _no_ , he'd never given himself or anyone else food poisoning, thank you very much, doubting GL.  
**

**(That one incident with the habanero seed falling in the Christmas cookie batter could have happened to anybody.  It was just bad luck that J'onn had chosen that particular piece.)  
**

**.**

**So it was with music.  If he liked a song then just listening to it like a passive audiophile zombie was torturous.  Wally wanted to get involved with the piece, belt out pop, rock, ballads, heck, even mock techno sounds and whatever else struck his eclectic fancy; with liberal uses of air guitar, too, and imaginary microphones and swinging hips.  
**

**It was all about motion, about energy and nerves firing electrical impulses and being _alive_.  
**

**Food nurtured the body; but music fed the soul.  
**

**So yeah...  
**

**Wally loved to sing.  
**

**It was just....awkward to do it with an audience.  
**

**.  
**

**Long ago during the first summer he'd spent away from his parents, Aunt Iris had insisted that as her sister's son possessed a nice voice he should try singing professionally--or at least publically.  He might even become famous in some band.**

**Alas, it was not to be; for on the day of a school talent contest his sports-enthusiast dad had snorted that singing and dancing was the last resort for sissies.**

**No young boy wanted to be considered a _sissy_.  Being a sissy was social Death By A 1000 Cuts and Wally was already touching the line by being such a nerd over that Flash guy running around down south in Central City.  Being the president and sole member of a club was not especially a _cool_ aspiration and he knew it.  
**

**Already feeling second thoughts, Wally had headed towards the audition line (in a wandering sort of way so as not to be glaringly obvious), heard the kids at school throwing similarly disparaging remarks at the would-be budding vocalists...and any plan to please his aunt on this matter flew out the window like a bat out of hell.  Rather than proving to people that he was inadequate at being _manly_ at the tender age of 10, Wally had hastily skipped the performance arts department and applied for track---much to Aunt Iris's disappointment.  Fortunately, Iris West was wise to the world and stopped pushing when she saw the miserable look on her nephew's face.  Ironically, Wally had also failed to earn his dad's blessing because Rudolph had wanted him to try out for American Football seeing as _"the only good of running fast was when you have a pigskin in your hands."_  
**

**Sometimes you just couldn't win.**

**Puberty came and went, but he kept his talent.  However, from then on Wally only risked singing outloud _and in-key_ when he was alone with Aunt Iris. When he'd joined the Titans and the League it was the same defensive pattern: when pressed, start singing in a high-pitched cracking voice guaranteed to irritate his team mates until they begged (or more often) _threatened_ him to shut up or get jettisoned through the nearest newly cracked window.**

**(That last was actually a lot more scarier to risk once he'd started spending more time in The Watchtower.)  
**

**.  
**

**Anyway, since the accident with the lightning and his infusion with a super power it felt awkward to sing at normal speed. When getting so caught up in a piece of music he just couldn't ignore the siren any longer,  he unconsciously auto switched into hyper speed mode. With the sounds leaving his mouth so fast it sounded like buzzing bees?  Well, let's just say that nobody other than Aunt Iris ever learned he was a natural alto with considerable leeway into the other ranges.  
**

**It was lonely though, hiding himself behind jokes and feigned incompetency.  
**

**Man was a social creature...the soul cried to share itself and he had nobody who knew how to properly hear let alone process what his soul had to sing.**

 

 

 

**I need a man who'll take a chance**   
**On a love that burns hot enough to last;**   
**So when the night falls**   
**My lonely heart calls.**

**Oh, I wanna dance with somebody.**   
**I wanna feel the heat with somebody!**   
**Yeah, I wanna dance with somebody.**   
**With somebody who loves me.**

**(** ~~lyrics from I Wanna Dance With Somebody)

. **  
**

**.  
**

**Silence reigned supreme.  
**

**After being immersed in what Wally figured might have been an actual glimpse of the choirs of Heaven, this sudden absolute quiet was a bit unnerving. It was very like traveling past the sound barrier in the vast, virgin, arctic regions where not only were the noisy sounds of civilization's _Here and Then_ already beyond his ears, but all sounds from _Yet Ahead_ were still too far away to be processed.  The difference was that he'd had control over when to stop running so fast and let sounds enter his ears.  
**

**He didn't really want to run right now.  
**

**What, you know, with it being _pitch black_.  
**

**(Wasn't there a saying?)  
**

**_It's always darkest before it turns pitch black._  
**

**Honestly, he couldn't see his hand in front of his face.  
**

**Darkness swallowed everything: a thick darkness--absolutely no light from anywhere and to add insult to injury there was a viscous quality to it. Nothing like he'd felt when inside J'onn; the Martian had been like semi-transparent lubricant.  This new place was opaque in a way that gave opaqueness a whole new meaning...and it was gritty.**

**Swimming-upstream-against-a-monsoon-flood-with mud-down-your-underwear level of gritty.  
**

**In the dark gritty and who knew what it actually consisted of.  
**

_**I'm definitely going to want a shower after this.** _

__

_**"No need."  
** _

__

**Either that had been his inner child voting against personal hygiene or...  
**

**He wasn't alone.** _  
_

**Wally blinked and turned his head around (and, boy, was he thankful that the stuff didn't seem to be aggravating either his skin or eyes) yet no matter which way he looked or how hard he strained his senses everything was...dark and quiet: a void. If it wasn't for the fact that he had the sensation of moving through silty gelatin as well as being firmly held...**

**Well, that cinched it; definitely not alone.  
**

**He was being held by the wrist.  Or, rather, just before the world shifted he'd been grabbed by the wrist by The Central City Incident alien.  Yet his wrist didn't feel like it was being grasped.  
**

**Of course this could be because...he was being _held like some friggin bride_.  
**

**Pretty firmly too.  
**

**This wasn't exactly reassuring for all that his rescuer was in probably the angel/storm alien.  (I mean, c'mon, the whole thing with Superman:  daring last minute save by an alien followed by that same alien wanting to assay the West Family Jewels?)  
**

**Fortunately, whether you went by religious or academic texts, both angels and storms were supposedly sexless so this was a platonic rescue.  
**

**Please let it be a platonic rescue.  
**

**Had it even _been_ a rescue?  
**

**Really, was he dead?  Had that walking nightmare thing killed him and his gibbering mind was just too into denial to accept it? Did the surrounding darkness mean he was going to the Underworld instead of Heaven? Were the dead supposed to know their travel destinations as a matter or course or did they get some sort of orientation program? Possibly the final destination was to be a surprise for the newly deceased like a birthday party?**

**Maybe any moment little imps would pop out of the darkness and start chorusing:  
**

_**Happy Death day to you!  
** _

_**You've earned what you're due!  
** _

_**We're glad to inform you...** _

**_Your now in Hell's crew!_  
**

**Perhaps he wasn't even dead; perhaps the talons he'd seen had rendered him blind?**

**Analysis:  there was no pain radiating on his face to indicate such a horrible injury and he did still feel sensations of various pressures on his body: he was definitely being moved along and cradled by another.**

**1\. Sensation without any actual pain.**

**2\. Blind as a non-Batman bat.  
**

**Conclusion:  Symptoms of death or maimed and in shock?**

__

**Query:  If shock, was he really in the grip of that ugly nightmare rather than the angel and this was his mind sh** **unning reality?** _**  
**_

**Answer:  Denial.  
**

_**Until proven otherwise, deny everything bad.  Preferably in triplicate and cosigned by God.  
** _

**.  
**

**Back to contemplating any Afterlife Orientation program:  
**

**In high school Wallace Rudolph West officially and unofficially sucked at the vocational training tests.  Well, he was good at mechanical things and chemistry and professed a wish to join the police forensics department like his Uncle Barry had, yeah; however, the tests had been so dull and his attention so elsewhere and anywhere but the test that neither Central City or Star Labs had come rushing to his door with a contract to sign.  In fact his vocational teacher had snidely suggested -while waving his scores in his student's face- that with such an abundance of wool gathering skills Wally's best bet at getting a job with the police was to be handed a shovel and broom and directed to the nearest equestrian unit on account that the police didn't keep a sheep farm for making their uniforms.  
**

**Good ol' Mr. Dinglepuss: a tenured Don Rickles fan blissfully uneducated regarding ADHD.  
**

**.**

**So...**

**When all the data was put together, then Wally was either in the custody of Beauty (The Entity/Angel) or The Beast (Creepy Monster/I am so screwed.)**

**Wally supposed there was no harm in asking about his fate. If he was dead and destined for one or the other place, a single question would hardly alter his course.  
**

**Unless there was some sort of Lottery?  
**

 

**_"Congratulations!  As our 250, 0000,0000,0000,00000,000th customer, you win a a Get Out Of Hell free card!"_  
**

**_Some restrictions apply.  All applicable taxes must be paid before payment can be made.  Failure to pay taxes will resort in forfeiture of prize.  
_ **

****

**Seeing as he wasn't as rich as Bruce Wayne and could afford a tax lawyer and could buy a ticket to Heaven he was probably going to hell.  Furthermore, if Mr. Dinglepuss had his way (and what were the odds the old fart wasn't Hell's equivalent of St. Peter at the Pearly Gates?) then Wally would be weilding an extra-large pooper scoop and doggie bag, trailing after Cerberus all over Helldom....on account that he doubted Hell kept a sheep farm any more then Central City's finest did.  
**

**Thank goodness Cerberus had only the single tail end.  (He could deal with avoiding three sets of choppers, but...what went in must come out and just what went into Hell Dog Chow, Wally didn't care to find out when the mutt came down with colitis.)  
**

**New hypothesis:  The events of this day have turned me morbid.  
**

_**.** _

**"Excuse me, Mr. Angel..um...Fallen or otherwise? Am I dead? Are you taking me directly to Hell or Limbo and is there a Hell Celebrity Houses guidebook for either one, like where to find famous tormented souls? I always wanted to race that Atalanta chick Diana told me about; you know, the one addicted to golden apples? Though if she really is a lion now, I guess that's out because I don't do well around cats...mauling allergies, you see.  Not by the cat, _by Batman_ because...he's got this possessive thing going when it comes to apprehending Catwoman and for all I know all felines look the same when seen through that cowl of his.  By the way I'm also lousy at animal care.  Just saying."**

**Yep, definitely a trend towards morbidity and that just wasn't good for maintaining mental health.  He needed to start looking on the bright side of Hell.  I mean, it couldn't all be about fire, brimestone, and damnation, right?  Even demons had to have a place to kick back and relax after a day of torturing the general populace.  
**

**Maybe Hades would let him start a comedy show diner in the Underworld?**

 

**_Ye Olde Gallows Humor Cafe--come on in and bump funny bones with your ghoul.  
_ **

**_No sins, no soul, no service.  
_ **

**_Every Nite:  Swedish Bikini Model Tryouts.  Apply at Back. Door  
_ **

****

**If he earned enough money maybe he could settle down in some cesspool housing tract outside the rim of eternal fire...a nice two-story job tomb with a stake fence out front and The Scarecrow guarding the poisonous berries from harpies; impress some hot demon babe, raise an ankle-biter imp or two and maybe get a dog just to prove that the only shit shovelling he was good at was comedy show diner humor.  
**

**Did Cerberus ever have puppies?  
**

**Maybe Hell did have a sense of humor becuase there was a sense that one could only categorize as 'soft laughter' surrounding him. Wally turned his head to see who else shared the same appreciation of oddball wit because, that would be a rare find when it came to an audience; but again?.... _black void as far as the eye could see_.  
**

**"No. You're not dead and I'm not an angel or a demon."**

**The warm voice made no comment on the last question, an information sidestep which Wally saw as a bad sign. If he wasn't dead and he was no longer anywhere he recognized--then what was going on?**

**"However," his companion continued, "I am someone you can _trust_.  Maybe the only one you can."**

**"Aren't we cryptic."**

**"Not Vic Sage either."  
**

**"Well, I dunno.  I mean I can't see your face, not so much as a chin or scowl."  Wally complained.  "That's Question all over."**

**More silence while Wally brooded and the unknown continued to carry him only it knew where.**

 

 

_**-Wally Trust? Quickly!-** _

_**"Yes."** _

**That's what The Entity had asked back at the Plaza and he, Wally, had readily answered in the affirmitive.  He was probably being stupid, God knew even Booster Gold was not so stupid as to not check for identification first, yet Wally just knew this voice--technically angel or not--wasn't lying to him.**

_**Not an enemy so not Dee.  
** _

_**Not an angel or demon.  
** _

_**Presumably not God or the Devil because...well, those would be fairly conspicuous, wouln't they, being all Omniscient or Evil Personified?  
** _

**_Not Question or Batman_.  **

**(Wally snorted at the thought because even Batman at his most kickass wasn't able to pull this kind of surreal abduction/save off.)  
**

**Presumably, Doctor Fate was part of the brainwashed League.  No help from the standard mystical crowd for that same reason.  
**

**That kind of most likely left...  
**

**Duh!  The obvious.  
**

  
**No wonder it had evaded him.**

**"You're The Entity at the museum?  The sparkly storm thing?" _(Please don't be Ugly Nightmare or The Ghoul!)_  
**

**"Yes," the voice affirmed.**

**(Well, it never hurt to double check.  Like looking both ways for an ongoing Rogue mess before crossing the street.)  
**

**"Where are we? If I'm not dead, how is it we can converse and not choke on this...whatever it is we are in?"  He swatted out at the invisible muck, predictably, without affecting it one iota.  "Are you telepathic?"**

**"In a fashion. Rest assured, we will have no trouble talking to or hearing each other."**

**"That's convenient; because I'd really like it explained as to just what happened?  Why can't I feel or see anything?"**

**The Entity tightened around him a bit more, while the feeling of a controlled descent into the grainy void abruptly stopped.**

**"You can't?" the voice asked with obvious worry.  
**

**_Great.  He hadn't meant to startle his ride into pulling over.  The quicker they arrived at their destination the better.  Wherever it was._ **

**"Er...basically nothing besides you and the Dead Sea of Silt? Not to seem paranoid or anything, but that _is_ you holding me or should I be worried about some tentacled nightmare?"**

_**He'd seen horror movies.  
** _

**_It was possible._ Just ask Captain Nemo or any character in a porn fic:  _Tentacled monsters had a way of slipping in uninvited.  
_ **

**"It's me."  That feeling movement resumed.**

**"Okay.  Are _you_ a tentacled nightmare?"**

**_Cover all the bases, Wally!_  
**

**"Not last I checked." The voice sounded amused at the very notion.  "As for the 'muck'....I have sent us deep into The Delta."**

**"The Delta?"  Wally considered his surroundings and decided that his companion didn't mean the end point of the Mississippi or the Nile.  "Is that a fancy name for this unsanitary swimming hole?  Because I gotta say, I don't think even a nice publicity campaign is going to win you many tourists.  Scuba divers generally don't like swimming in gunk and the Health Department has rules."**

**"The Delta is that which is neither River nor Ocean, but a mixing point of the two alt-electron hyperdimensions that resulted in neither.  I'd get into particulars, but theoretical physics aren't my strong point.  Plus, it _is_ theoretical.  I could be completely off base."**

**"Ah..huh. You do realize that I'm understanding this as well as I understand Batman or Mr. Terrific when they get all technical?  Which is longhand for 'WTF'?"  the speedster snapped.  "Is this a trap?  Are you trying to confuse me....get me off my guard?"  
**

**_Because, damn it, if so it was working._  
**

**"Ah."  There was a momentary hesitation.  "Wally, I asked for your trust and you gave it to me."**

**"Yeah, well, I'm kind of known for my bursts of spontaneous decision making... _spontaneous_ as in not always the best one.  I'm on a first name basis with store returns departments.  They don't even groan anymore when they spot me slinking in the entrance with laden bags.  Not to my face, anyway." He sensed his companion's sigh and immediately felt bad about making his guide unhappy. Reason said he should be suspicious as all hell.  Reason said trust no one.**

**Reason must be speaking in some obscure dialect because, yeah...no comprendo.**

**"Oh heck...yes, I trust you---God knows why---but I do. It's just that my life's been a bit tabloid-ish of late to the point that Gorilla Grodd telling me we had a love child together--with photographic and DNA evidence--would not be all that surprising; then there's the whole memory loss thing courtesy of the League and being chased, caged, andotherwisefeelingdirtyandLuthor, J'onn--"**

**_Panic.  He couldn't get air._  
**

**_Drowning.  
_ **

**"Wally...be calm."**

**"I'm trying! I...feel..."**

**"Lost and in the dark?" Wry humor; not spoken in an unkind way, but Wally picked up on that sense of worried tension again.  
**

**"Pretty much." He  had to concede.  "I'm not normally this discombobulated by stuff."  
**

**"It's The Delta.  Messes with perceptions.  Don't worry, I won't let you get lost here.  
**

**"Yeah, explain _here_ some more."  
**

**"First, you should know that those terms I've used are of my own and the others devising. When we were brought here, we had no labels for what we found. To a great degree, the names _River, Ocean,_ and _Delta_ are descriptions that best sum up the majority of what we know about our situation. To put it another way....none of us are Batman here and there wasn't a Chamber of Commerce available to go and gain answers from. We're mucking about the best we know how."**

**"I can believe it considering someone forgot to pay the pool man?"  Wally made another pointless swipe at his surroundings.  "Oh well, who am I to judge?  Mucking about sounds pretty much like my life story."**

**"Yes...I imagine it would," the voice chuckled a bit, but didn't explain why he found Wally's statement exceptionally funny. "I've converted your body's mass into it's energy signature. Matter no longer exists for us as you know it, so it was necessary to initiate the change before It did and you were lost to me. Granted, I've never done this kind of conversion to another living being before, but it wasn't exactly a spur of the moment plan either as I had worked out the possibility last time we came together. I knew it was possible to convert matter to energy even earlier because I have seen it done." The voice sounded thoughtful. "I think I did quite well considering circumstances were rather more stressed than I'd hoped for."**

**"You sure use the pronoun _I_ a lot." Wally noted.  "I'm told that's a sign of an overdeveloped ego."**

**"That," The Entity ruefully supplied, "has been suggested to me more than once."  
**

**"So...I've been converted like some newbie initiate.  What's the secret handshake?"  
**

**_Hand..._  
**

**_He didn't have one?  
_ **

**Hang on--my body is gone? Did you say my body was gone?  How can my body be gone?  You said I wasn't dead!"  Wally felt like he was drowning in anxiety again. He couldn't help it; he'd had his body since before childhood. You could say they were close; Pals, even. Especially his stomach and Little Wally. _Why, they went everywhere together, his body and him_. He'd never left home without it. He...**

**"Stop thinking so loud." The Entity hissed.  
**

**"Hey--what do you mean you've never done this before?! Energy--mass...just what did you do to me, Einstein? Is it reversible? Oh gods--are you some sort of quack scientist? Who is this _we_? For that matter, who are you?" Questions slammed into his mind and out of his mouth at lighting speed, piling up into a jumble of various fears that mixed together into one big spaghetti ball of anxiety.**

**Swaths of peaceful music filled his mind: softly hummed comfort. Wally calmed down despite himself.**

**_Though that didn't necessarily mean he was content witht he status quo._  
**

**"Shush.  It's okay.  Everything will be fine and dandy.  You'll see.  Just....breathe."  
**

**The grip on him lessened a bit.  
**

**"Yeah, I am rather fond of self expression, but I have reason to be. Trust I'm someone who has your best interests at heart," the voice reiterated.  "Please stay calm, Wally, or we'll be found even at this depth."**

**"Found?" A twinge of worry came back.**

**Found by what?**

**_'Sent us deep... Messes with perceptions.'_ **

**_'Run silent.  Run deep.'_ **

**So he had been advised before by a mysterious voice, one who knew that Wally understood the phrase and what it meant.  
**

**_They were being chased and hiding was their best option of surviving a bad encounter._  
**

**Talking was apparently okay; yet strong emotions were a no-no?  
**

**How did he talk without a body?  
**

**Was The Entity a Martian?  
**

  
**Too many questions that needed answers and, by golly, he was going to get them or...**

**well, there really wasn't much he _could_ do, considering his current situation.  
**

**"What are we hiding from?"  
**

**"Let's just say that being found would be rather unpleasant at this juncture. Presently, The Delta is concealing us, but strong patterns could potentially breach it and we are a bit distinct from..." The voice hesitated; the voice unabashedly switched topics.  "At any rate suffice that I've done something similar quite instinctively dozens of times and would never have risked it if I wasn't confident I could convert another. Particularly you."**

**"Dozens?" Wally asked with a tiny bit of skepticism.  He didn't like that something that had an ominous nature attached to it was being kept from him.  He didn't like being coddled that way, but asking about the who or why of their pursuer obviously wasn't going to gain him a straight answer.  
**

**"More or less," the voice hedged. "Trust me, Wally. Everything will be fine and I swear I'll explain it all soon enough. Right now is just not a good time."**

**That was the trouble....Flash did believe the speaker. He just wished he knew why because clearly his unknown companion was hiding things from him. That coupled with his experience with J'onn, this automatic response to simply trust the other didn't seem natural.**

**Could he trust his trust? Was it his trust he was trusting with or was his trust untrustworthy because it wasn't _his_ trust? (Wally was sincerely starting to hope the after life included a pro-bono psychiatrist because he seemed to be developing new issues by the hour. Heck, he'd be stuck there under the doctor's analysis so much they'd probably let him paint his logo on the couch on a lease-to-own plan.)**

**"Okaaay.....I guess that makes sense....I suppose."**

_**Well, not really.** _

**He was thoroughly weirded out by the idea of matter transmutation (which he figured was utterly different, more complex, and thus more dangerous than anything like The Watchtower's own teleportation system.)  Plus there was the _possibly-still-being-under-mind-manipulation theory_   which was just as unsavory as having his molecules scrambled by out-of-warranty alien tech.**

**Wally fell into silence for a second before he had to own up: "Well, no. I'm still in the dark."**

**Literally. Did being only energy mean he'd be blind for the duration of whatever situation he was in?  That would get pretty dull mighty fast.  
**

**Maybe The Entity navigated using sonar?  Like, well, a bat.  Or a dolphin.  
**

**_No, no, no, he did not need a mental picture of a cross between Batman and Aquaman.  Hell was going to be tough enough to bear as it was._  
**

**"Yes. Well...I'm sorry about that," and Wally did sense a strong and genuine regret. "It won't be for much longer. We had to go as deep as possible.  Just hold on."**

**"Okay, I'll try to be as quiet and as patient as a Martian librarian."**

**_Only did he forget to mention that he'd been banned from most libraries on account he hated being quiet?_  
**

**So, then this nothingness is...deep?  Like in the ocean?"**

**"That is the best way to describe it."  
**

**"Terrific."  
**

**.  
**

**Wally vividly remembered listening wide eyed to Arthur Curry as the waspish Aquaman had tried to scare the willies out of certain pesky, land-locked, Nebraska-born Kid Flash---who had just seen the movie Jaws, mind you---about how the deeper you went into the ocean:**

**"...the darker it gets because Sol's light rays can only penetrate a little ways through the water. Most of the world's cold aquatic depths are swathed in pitch blackness save for the occasional luminous sea inhabitant and the fiery red light from magma breaking through the Earth's crust. The glow and warmth attracts prey.  Perhaps that is why the most carnivorous deep sea animals are especially drawn to swimmers resplendant in bright reds and yellows."**

**.  
**

**Next to Aquaman, _ **Mr. Dinglepuss looked like a saint.**_  
**

_**Damned, waterlogged, fish-gilled, barnacled-butt, fashion-disaster, jerk.** _

**To this day Flash was still nervous about diving under water.**

**This wasn't the ocean though...or was it? If he didn't have a body, how would he know if this environment was wet or dry?**

**_If I have no body, how is it I can feel anything at all?_ **

**Damn it--was he dead or wasn't he? Stuff like that was kind of important. For instance, if he was a ghost, he couldn't be eaten by some weird deep sea monster that saw Flash logo merchandise as some sort of red neon _Eat At Joe's_ diner advertisement.**

**"Yes, The Delta runs both dark and deep which is rather a plus even if it is disconcerting to be moving while partially sensory blind. However, that works for all and not just us. I'm hoping It will lose our scent at the moment of entry and not think to search what It thinks is nonexistent.  Still, we must be careful to remain unnoticed."**

**That was informative.**

**Not.**

**"You aren't by chance _related_ to Batman, are you?" Wally asked.**

**_Because...really; the simularities._  
**

**"No," the voice chuckled, "why would you think that?"**

**"It's just...we seem to share a chemistry that I only had with the Gotham Caveman.  By chemistry I mean an inverted ratio of what came out of his mouth versus my understanding it."**

**"Ah." The voice sounded kind of disappointed.  "Well, I'm not a Bat of any kind unless you count the instance I served as a batboy for the school baseball team."**

**"You too?  Did the pitcher and umpire try to trash can you during....never mind."**

**  
**

**Wally spent a silent moment (or what seemed like one) mulling over all that his companion had said. "Tell me something.  You were the voice I heard that asked me to meet you at The Delta?"**

**"I was." the voice affirmed.  "As far as I can figure out The Delta can only be entered by thinking about it or by having a deep desire to hide---which is how I found it in the first place. You can only think about something that you at least imagine may exist. It shares some aspects of us, but not much of an imagination so The Delta seemed a safe bet as long as we don't think about It too much. I could not be sure that I would get to you before It did, so I gave you the name place just in case and hoped that your psyche would automatically be drawn here even in my absence."**

**"Baiting the doorway with a food gift would have been better."**

**"Not my fault all the takeaway places were closed."  
**

**"Right, basically, then, the Delta is a No-Man's land abyss that is useful for hiding from an It. There are also these mysterious _us's_ you refer to, but an _it_ seems most worrisome.  So...what is this Cousin It we're so keen on not being found by?  I take it we aren't playing a game of Addam's Family tag?"**

**The voice continued to sound patient, but now had an edge of grimness. "For the very reason I've given, Wally, I dare not say the name here, but....**

**It is that which hunts for The Three."**


	2. The Ocean

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well...damn. I just switched to the dark screen skin (bright light hurt my eyes and realized that doing so rather destroyed my idea of using bold font to depict The Delta scenes. Oh well. Those are about over anyway.
> 
> If I had a way to host it and was absolutely positive that NASA didn't have it copyrighted, I'd put up their image of The Antennae Galaxy. If you go looking for it it's the one that looks vaguely brain shaped and is colored pinkish red and gold.

**[Time is innapplicable: The Delta]**

**.**   
**.**   
**"Oh no-- _no_.  This is about that hoary tale of a speed force reaper, isn't it?" a dubious Wally drawled out.  "The--"**

**" _Don't_ name it here."**

**"Yeah, you already said that reciting The Monster Book of Names would be some sort of bad luck or whatever.  So does that makes you...The Invisible Man?  Or is that name verbotem as well?"  Yes, he could tell his companion was being _cagily_ honest with him, but being honest about something didn't necessarily make that something _true._ Beautiful and innocent lies were accepted without question all the time; _they were still lies_.  Sincerity didn't share synonymity to Truth and the _truth_ was that the existance of what The Entity was implying just didn't make sense. _  
_**

**_I am really darned tired of things that don't make sense._  
**

****

**(Had he thought that already since waking up in The Watchtower?  
**

**Yes he had.  Mark that on the list too:  
**

**He was really darned tired of having to repeat himself.) _  
_**

**The Black Flash? C'mon, that was a story told by old geezers to scare the spandex pants off of the gullible younger generations. (And, God, what was it with old geezers and wanting to rid kids of their pants?)**

**Hell, that sentence came out all sorts of wrong even in the privacy of his mind.**

**Maybe he was going mental.**

**Maybe he'd always been mental.**

**Maybe his companion was not all that mentally there either?**

**Was there some sort of drug laced in with this omnipresent Delta place?**

  
**The voice hesitated to answer him.  Probably sensed he was close to losing it.**

**"You're upset.  This will make more sense once you are in it, understand, as at the moment you have no reference--"**

**"Despite years of being in The League I'd have to agree," Wally interposed, "this entire day has been nuttier than usual."**

**"--However, I am part of the world....well, _above_ I guess is the best term.  Normally I think of it as The Ocean of souls, but they call it Home--though I wasn't gathered like they were--same as you were not. In that as well as in other things we are the same--yet different from the others."**

  
**He was getting a feeling that asking for clarification on any of that would make him no wiser, yet Wally merely grit his teeth and asked, "Different?"**

  
**"Yes...for one thing, I was able to imagine the existence of a delta region alongside The Ocean. The others can not fathom it...or probably do not feel the need to hide."**

**His guide seemed saddened for some reason Wally could only guess at. A filtered voice bled quietly from the blackness before he could ask why.**

  
**_"We all end in the ocean_**   
**_We all start in the streams_**   
**_We're all carried along_**   
**_By the river of dreams."_**

**"That you doing karaoke or does The Delta feature satellite radio?"  Wally asked.**

  
**"The Delta is silent which is why it's a great hiding place."**

**"You should have named it The Abyss."**

**"Movie copyright."  The voice chuckled.  "You're right, but we wanted to keep it simple so it wouldn't start sounding like a geography course, so:  River, Delta, Ocean.    Just as river water gradually mixes with salt water once it enters the sea, so there is a thin layer of contact between their dimensional counterparts.  What you are hearing is coming from The Ocean and that means we are getting very close to the edge of the Delta."**

**"And me without my scuba gear.  I guess I should mention I'm not particulrly fond of being underwater."**

**"Hm....Aquaman _was_ a bit of a jackass, wasn't he?" the voice mused.  "I believe Barry gave him a stern talking to.  Not that it did any good."**

**"How did you know...?"**

**"If you feel the need to join in the songs, don't sing above a whisper and don't forget who you are," his escort warned. "Soon, we will be amongst them. We are almost there...almost Home."**

  
**Wally shivered at the name, but whether from fear or some other emotion, he could not say.  At least the darkness he was in did seem to be moving upwards, albeit slowly; or slowly compared to his impatience.**

**The song grew stronger, both lulling and pulling at him.**

  
**_"I know I'm searching for something_**   
**_Something so undefined_ **   
**_That it can only be seen_ **   
**_By the eyes of the blind_ **   
**_In the middle of the night._ **

  
**How appropriate.**

  
**"I'm blind...in the middle of the night."  Wally felt the urge to giggle, but suppressed it.**

**Maybe there really was some substance _not especially legal_ mixed in with this place.  
**

  
**"Yes," the voice seemed to smile. "But you've finally found what you've been looking for...and the night does not last forever." Warmth surrounded Wally, gentle and protective. It was akin to how he had felt while J'onn attempted to soothe him, only ten times better. There was a sense of peace, of trust. Of genuine love and care not being coerced by another, outside influence.**

  
**Not to mention a distinct lack of Lex Luthor's laughter.**

**A big plus right there.**

  
**"You have a nice singing voice,"Wally complimented his guide.  (Well, etiquette demanded he say something.  Anyway, the statement was true enough.)  
**

  
**"I do at that, although I have not sung anything yet since bringing you here; still, I am very familiar with both songs and singer."**

  
_**What?** _

**"But...it sounded like..."  Wally frowned as he could have sworn the singing voice and that of his companion were the same. Or the equivalent of a frown seeing as he apparently had no body.**

**_He was really not going to get over that idea._  
**

**To distract himself from that disconcerting thought, he wondered what had happened to his pilfered clothing seeing as he hadn't paid for it yet.  Then it struck him that his companion still had not identified himself. This was patently unfair as the voice seemed to know a fair bit about Wally while Wally still knew close to nothing about The Entity.**

  
**"Who are you?"**

**"Your friend.  At the very least, that."**

**"If you're my friend then why did everyone want me to stay away from you?"**

**_Oh god._ **

  
**"Are...are you the March Hare?"**

  
**"You don't remember?" The voice sounded hurt, but not very. More...contemplative...maybe even distracted.**

  
**"I...I'm not sure. The other Justice League founders erased some of my memories.  Then I was otherwise occupied as a guest of Luthor's.  Then The Lords showed up and tried to kidnap me.  Before that I could only recall bits and snatches of trying to find something....plus the voice speaking to me since that day at LexCorp."**

  
**"Ah.." now the voice sounded sad. "Not surprising, I suppose, that they wanted you to forget. They have no idea who I am while we didn't exactly trust them either.  They were afraid of your leaving them. I can empathize with that sentiment; I've missed you so much, Wally. Being without you has been an eternity of loss" The warmth surrounded Wally actually managed to intensify. "I'm so sorry that I was unable to come for you sooner. If I had...things would have been better."**

  
**"Is this a hint that I should be guilty for making you feel bad?"**

  
**"You have never made me feel bad. Quite the opposite."**

  
**"Okay...." an uncomfortable Wally shifted.   They were conversing like old lovers and he wasn't sure how he felt about that. "Since apparently we were once very close, I don't suppose you can tell me your name?" Wally prodded a second time.**

  
**"Not quite yet. However, my title here is The Caretaker. You can call me that for now."**

  
**"Caretaker..." Wally tried out the name in his memory. It didn't ring any bells, not as belonging to a League member or a Rogue.**

**_Well, at least it wasn't anything as silly sounding as The March Hare or some other Wonderland character name._ **

  
**"No, you won't have heard of it. That's what all the others in The Ocean named me. That happened after we met. In a little while you will learn more. I understand your impatience, Wally, but I've always had a tendency towards the dramatic and ask that you humor me. We are almost out of the Delta, and they do say a picture is worth a thousand words. Then you will see for yourself; trust me."**

  
**Getting a little bit frustrated by this continued request for what he couldn't seem to help anyway, Wally waited. His escort was correct in that he did trust him even though he could think of no concrete reason why he should and plenty of why he should nots. Anyway, the darkness did seem to be changing a bit? He concentrated on the void. It felt...less dense...cleaner...lighter. In fact...**

  
**Again he felt a sensation of being yanked, but this time sharply upwards.**

**.**

**.**

            .

         .  
  
[Time is inapplicable: The Ocean]  
.

_Light!_

  
The change was literally comparable to night and day.

If the Delta was more like The Abyss, then _this_ was like being hurled into the white and gold brilliance of The Sun.

  
Blinding light--energy. _Everywhere._ Surrounding, infusing, power that was moving at incredible speeds swirled and danced. Wally squinted what his mind insisted were his eyelids, afraid that he'd now be blinded by too much light, supernatural existance or no. Instead it seemed he now saw clearer than he'd ever remembered being able to see before. It was the difference between a grainy 1920's black and white film and and late 20th Century Technicolor.

In front of him, a sparkling, elongated ball of flaring lightning danced separately from the other energies. Wally got the intense impression that it was smiling.  Maybe even laughing.

The Entity?  "Caretaker?"  Wally 'breathed in.  Then again. 

This place... this place....

"Where...?"

  
"Welcome to The Ocean of Velocity....or just The Ocean for short. Beautiful, aren't they?"

  
"The whatandwho? _What_ are you?"

  
"Hm? Oh, duh...I'm sorry. You weren't assimilated properly and that likely really messed with your perceptions.  No wonder The Delta really seemed to unsettle you so much....first time there and now.....well, as I were a bit rushed..um...hold on. Here...let me try..."

  
The energy being next to him touched Wally while muttering somthing, then whirled away to hold unto Wally's shoulders from behind. Before Wally's eyes the speeding balls of lightning flared then fell apart only to start reforming into a recognizable shapes.

 _Really_ recognizable shapes.

  
"There!  Better, or should I fiddle a bit more with the video tuner?" His guide through The Delta sounded like he was laughing at a shared punch line.

  
"Don't...think that's...needed," Wally breathed out.

  
Archive VHS picture quality had just become freaking Blu-Ray on an HDTV. The racing points of energy were now discernible as...people. A mob of glowing _people_ moving too fast to make out individual facial features.

  
"You see them, then?" His guide through The Delta was grinning.  Wally didn't have to see him to know this.

  
"The energy here...it's people."  If he had a jaw it would have dropped.

  
"Just people?" The Caretaker asked, sounding oddly disappointed by Wally's response.  
Wally was going to turn his head to see his guide when a multitude of voices shouted at once.

  
**"He'shere! TheCaretaker'scomeHome! He'sbroughttheMissing!"**

  
"Welcome to Home, Wally. Brace yourself," The Caretaker chuckled into his ear, "they've rather come to idolize you."

  
"Idolize...me?  But I'm not wearing my uniform.  How do they know I'm The Fla--"

They were in some other dimension that obviously wasn't Earth.  Not like Luthor had Wanted posters plastered here, right?

Besides, no body, no wallet, no I.D.

_So someone please tell him how humanoid lightbulbs in some metaphorical sea body would care about one Wallace Rudolph West?_

  
He didn't have time to wonder an more about it.

The energy people shifted as one mass.  They were quickly surrounded by the humanoid light bulbs. Wally was touched by them over and over again; relentlessly: a celebrity caught defenseless in a crowd of well-meaning, but suffocating speedsters that clearly were rabid fans of his. The petting motions came so fast it was difficult to tell if it was many or just one all consuming touch. The hands did not harm him nor were the touches sexual in nature....more like little kids wanting to be absolutely sure their hero was actually and truly there with them. There simply was no escaping such an onslaught of sheer enthusiasm.

  
**"Wally!-Wally!-WALLY!-WALLY!WALLY!WALLY!WALLY! THE HEART-IS-COMPLETE!"**

  
Say what now?

  
Wally felt their joy. It was impossible not to. His issue was with understanding the reason for it.  He was just a guy; not some god.

They didn't seem to realize this or if they did...they didn't care.

 

The euphoria was so strong it bordered on the orgasmic.  Heck--this was way past orgasmic, more like being hit by a tsunami head on.

Did he say tsunami?  Make that a planetoid.

It was burying him under the weight.

Suddenly the Delta felt less suffocating by comparison.

He tried to shake it off-- _shake them off_ \--but the emotions, _the desires_ were overpowering him, pulling him under like a rip tide.

  
And why not succumb to it?

Why not lose himself in this innocent, unending adoration?

Not even his fantasy world characters were this enamored over him; Wally could just let himself surrender to love.

Mind-blowing love.

Under, in, out, folded, spindled and mutilated.

Love...lo..ve...loss....losing...

 

Losing his self.

    Losing his identity.

_Surrounded and subsumed._

  
"Wally?"

  
No! He was Wally West--- _The Flash_ \---and never mind his own psyche, a real hero did not surrender the mantle of Barry's legacy so easily!

Besides, he was himself, not some community project! He was--

  
He was _trapped._

   Like a fly caught in amber.

      Like a mammoth in The La Brea Tar Pits.

  
"Wally--stop!"

  
_Too much. Too much...sucking me in...losing...can't hold..._

  
"WALLY, I SAID _ENOUGH!"_

  
The Caretaker roared the command at the bombarding crowd, his energy brighter than the others and radiating displeasure as it wrapped itself protectively around their stricken guest.

The energy people stopped and retreated a little.  Wally could sense the confusion around him.

It was nothing compared to his own.

  
Breathing heavily, he blinked as he took in the crowd. Now that they were relatively still, he could clearly make out their shapes and faces for all that they were formed of lightning sparks gone amuck.

He'd gone insane.  There was no other explanation because...

_Every single vibrating one...every person....was the same..._

_Person?  
_

  
The immediate area was filled by dozens of wide-eyed Wally Wests and the arms holding him possessively were covered in red spandex with gold lightning bolts encircling a bit above the wrists.

  
The Flash uniform.

Not some store-bought facsimile with cheap material either, his overwrought mind supplied, but a real, live, 100% authentic The Flash uniform.

 _He_ wasn't wearing it.

  
My God....my God...could it be?

Barry? _He'd found his Uncle Barry?_

Wally couldn't take that in just yet:  the idea that after all these years he and his mentor were re-united.  If he tried to grasp the concept in his hand he'd lose it for sure and...

He was with Barry again.

 

He just couldn't _deal_ with any of that just yet.

 

Crazily enough he found it easier to face the other impossibility first:  the idea that he, supposedly a unique individual, was in triplicate...times a hundred or so.  
  
"They're all....me?" Wally finally managed to gasp out. His guide held him tighter, but otherwise ignored him as he apparently was otherwise engaged with spearing the other beings with blazing sternness.

The myriad of Wests looked very contrite. You'd think they were being dressed down by an enraged Batman instead of Barry Allen.

(Only Wally West and some common criminals had ever kowtowed shame-faced to an irate Flash II.)

  
"They are all you, and they _will back away from you--now!"_

  
**_"ButhehascomeHomeasyousaid?"_ **

  
"Yes," The Caretaker addressed the numerous Other Wally Wests in a reproving tone, "he's finally came and we are complete-- _the Heart_ is complete. But if you don't calm down then _they_ will come as well and take him away from me and The Heart will be broken again."

  
 _I and Uncle Barry make up a Heart?_ a dizzy Wally blinked. _That sounds..._

  
The energies seemed to gasp as one. Remorse filled the air. Their collective response was so uniform it might have been choreographed.

  
**"Sorrysorrysorry,sorry, Caretaker. HappyforCaretaker. HappyforWally."**

  
"I know." The Caretaker relaxed a bit, though Wally was thankful he kept close to his former ward.  If Barry let go of him now, he'd surely fall to the floor.

Or whatever was considered the floor in Heaven.

 

Barry was here, so this has to be heaven.

 Heaven was full of himself?

 

Apprently, when they made him, they _didn't_ break the mold!

That was funny.

So why wasn't he smiling at his own joke?

 

_Man, this is one weird heaven  and I am ready for my padded cell.  
_

_.  
_

_.  
_

 "Thank you. _Each_ of you," The Caretaker complimented them with weary patience....like they were his children  "Tell me...where is The Singer?"

  
 **"SingsattheReef"** the Wallys chirped together.

  
"We are going to visit the Singer. You should not follow us to him."

  
**"Disappointment--sad."**

  
"Now, don't be that way. We will return. Perhaps what with being complete, the Singer will return as well."

  
**"Happyanticipation. WallyAwaitreturn."**

* * *

  
The Caretaker pulled him away from the others until the energized 'air' moved more swiftly than where they had just been let alone the slow morass that had been The Delta.

It felt...

What a relief!

 

"Oh, God."  
  
"Are you okay?"

  
"Yeah," Wally answered a bit shakily. "Just fine and freaking dandy."

Somehow he'd almost lost who he was back there. Luckily his uncle had saved him.

Wasn't the first time his uncle had saved his nephew from himself.

Barry was good at that.

_Good old Barry._

  
"I'm so sorry. I knew they'd be happy to see us together, but not that they'd react that strongly."  The Caretaker slowly let go of him. "Are you sure you're okay?"

  
Okay?  He was more than okay.  I mean...he was _with Barry!_

Ready to envelop the man in the biggest bear hug he could give out, Wally turned around to face...

The Flash?

But....?  The pit of Wally's stomach bottomed out.

The Caretaker _was_ wearing The Flash uniform--- _but it wasn't Barry Allen's_ \--it was his style... _The Wally West customized version_ with the more angled lightning accents and wingless boots---The third Flash's.

Maybe its just a fashion change?

No.

It was all wrong.

He....he was fooling himself.

Why had he fooled himself that way?

Because he wanted it to be his uncle.

He wanted it to be Barry.

But...

The voice had not been like Barry's at all.

Not Barry's.

No...

_Wally's._

_He was staring at another one of himself.  
_

_The Entity.  
_

_The Caretaker.  
_

_Not Barry.  
_

_Wally.  
_

Oh, this was...this was...it all was...

  
"Flash?"

  
The Scarlet Speedster reached up to pull back his cowl.  Familar orangeish red hair spilled down.  "You were expecting Saint Peter?" the red head joked.

  
"Close...my...uncle," was Wally's faint reply before...

* * *

  
"The Caretaker" a.k.a. Wally West caught his double as he slumped, sighing at his own stupidity for not realizing that this Wally's first thought upon seeing the red and lightning might naturally have been of their mentor.

He really needed to curb his flair for drama if it was going to make him fuck up this badly.

  
"That could definitely have gone better."


	3. A Questionable State of Being

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meanwhile, back at the Flash Museum...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah...RL is another word for bitch with things like DC Editorial (2013 "no Wally West in DC52 planned") and Weisman's ("I wasn't planning to bring Wally back in future Young Justice episodes; his death was final") attitudes not helping my motivation to write...and the moment I got half way through finishing this chapter after months and months of obstacles...again, it wants to throw up road blocks. I think Reality hates me.

  
Chapter 18: A Questionable State of Being

 

 

 

 

>  .  
>  _"The people. The glass of water. The heat of the friction on my skin. And that humming sound. Is this what it's like? Is this what it's like to be the Flash?"_  

>  
> 
>    
>  _~~Hunter Zolomon The Flash #197_  
>  _._

  
  
[Time: Appearance of The Black Flash: The Flash Museum plaza/ Central City, Midwestern USA]

  
The Question did a quick observation of the surrounding vicinity, ticking off facts in his mind:

 

  *      His otherwise reliable wrist watch appeared to have stopped.  (Considering the timepiece had a relatively fresh battery and had been meticulously-tested against links to the international atomic consortium, that it was no longer counting down the passage of time was...unexpected.)


  *      Airplanes and birds were as frozen photographs adhered to a fake sky like part of a gigantic diorama for the Flash's museum.


  *      Luthor and his goons seemed satisfied to play act as additional statues from said museum.


  *      Dust motes hung in the air before his face as if they were tiny defects in a glass pane.


  *      Fluttered leaves stayed improbably starched into angled positions even though the air felt utterly still.


  *      There was no motion outside at all save for the chest movements of himself and Batman.


  *      Sounds from beyond the immediate vicinity failed to be noted by his eardrums.



 

It appeared to Sage as if the whole city is frozen in time. Possibly the entire planet. Or maybe it's just the vicinity of The Flash Plaza?  There was no way to tell, no way to measure the extent of what was happening.

Was he still in Central?

Was this a dream?

Was he real?

Was he a dream?

What was time when time ceased to be a slave to the ticks of a clock's gears or the digital turnings within a chip?   
For that matter, just how did you measure the duration of the lack of time when clocks fail to function as intended?

 

 

 

>  
> 
>  
> 
>   
> _What is time_?  
>  _Time is man-made_  
>  _And time is not correct_.  
>  _I am beyond time_.  
>  _I care not time_.  
>  _Time is not here_.  
>  _Here I am without time_.  
>  _Time has no eyes_  
>  _No ears, and time_  
>  _Asked me to move_  
>  _And see the mirror_  
>  _And the mirror_  
>  _Told me to go_.  
>  _I know time is here_  
>  _And there is_  
>  _Identity crisis_  
>  _Whose identity_  
>  _I do not know._  
>  _Time orders me to go_  
>  _And I am here._
> 
>   _~~Timlessness by Gajanan Mishra_

 

_  
_Stillness.

Eternity captured in one snapshot.

Beautiful.

Terrifying.

_Is this what West experiences when he goes beyond the speed of sound and approaches that of light? Does he become a stranger on an alien world where the natural laws of Earth do not apply? The result thus attained is an ethereal one and highly fascinating, but a twinge of 'unnerving' is definitely gaining strength in my psyche:  the niggling thought of being stuck forever in such a world without relative motion...there would only be one result:  
_

  
_Insanity._

Surely, could be mesmeric for the first few moments of awe would likely induce madness if it continued on for very long. Vic didn't mind being perceived as off his rocker (it helped to keep others at a distance), but that didn't mean he actually wished to become deranged due to prolonged -if partial- sensory deprivation.  Was this situation something he could learn to manipulate like Flash must have been able to do (because Sage was sure that West, for all his own recent doubts on the matter, was perfectly sane.) If not, just how long would this stalled time thing last?

 .

  
At least motion beyond Batman's and his own wasn't totally absent.  Question saw that Luthor and his guards might as well be made of the same stone that comprised The Flash Museum's walls, yet John Dee's body was giving away small movements even if his eyes are closed in thought--or maybe it was simply a last prayer?

 

_It's as if he's aware, but not quite in sync with us._ _By comparison The Black Flash..._

  
The creature appeared to be very real, indeed, to the investigator.

 

_Fascinating. It's presence is almost certainly what is causing this time-distortion phenomena. I've got to get the details down now before it decides to leave for lack of immediate speedster-flavored Happy Meals._

  
 With one deft move born of long practice, Vic prepared to make a quick sketch on a small, dog-heared notepad he'd kept within the inner-lining of his jacket. A quick sketch...he'd fill in the details later...assuming there ever was going to be a _later_.

The monstrosity hadn't moved.  It was staring down...well, whatever it was finding so interesting to The Question's left.  A direction which, incidentally, Batman also happened to be in line with. Not that Vic considered that it was The Caped Crusader the creature was staring at. How could Wayne be a target when his fellow, _normal_ mortal would be as much a non-entity to The Black Flash as Vic was?  The thing was reputed by the most reliable source there was to have very select dietary restrictions that were right up there with that of koala bears.

  
Ink had barely started staining paper when Sage saw the shadow fall over him.

 .

  
The Black Flash inquisitively leaned forward to eyeball The Question's notepad, it's eyeless gaze trained directly on the rectangular square of white. It looked for all the world that it was about to offer advice on its forthcoming portrait.

Possibly a _biting_ review at that.

  
"Art critic?" Vic flippantly asked, voice cracking just the tiniest bit. (Academic curiosity notwithstanding, he hadn't intended to get this close to the thing.)

  
It's teeth clacked together noisily.  The gates of Hades probably made a more pleasant sound.

  
It was just curious, Sage told himself. It wasn't attracted to him and likely hadn't understood his quip. Nobody present was attune to the Speed Force so it wasn't interested in anyone here. If he just waited patiently, it would get bored and move away.

  
_Get bored and freaking move away already!_

  
_Please?_

  
Vic started mentally taking stock of what he could possibly use as a makeshift weapon and for once in his life couldn't think of a damned thing.

Stab of the pen to the eyes?

What eyes?

Cram the notepad down it's throat?

It would probably take his hand with the paper.

 

Being an accomplished fighter, Sage had never come up blank before nor felt so strangely intimidated and it just added to his sudden bout of nerves.

  
Soulless pits met his own. Be it utilizing invisible eye balls or some sort of echolocation, It's _vision_ seemed able to go right through the encompassing mask of synthetic skin that gave Sage his alter identity. The Question felt a trickle of sweat move with infinitesimal slowness down towards his hairline as a flash of comprehension came. 

The Black Flash saw him.

_Was inspecting_ him.

He locked all of his voluntary muscles into place and silently cursed.

Shit.

Idiot!

  
Well, at least the sense of impending doom he had was explained. More evidence that the subconscious mind was better attuned to the presence of fatal danger than the conscious was. Too bad he wouldn't live long enough to research more on the subject.

  
A clawed hand reached for him as if not quite decided if it should bother dirtying it's appendage on such a lowly being.

  
Vic's thoughts naturally chose _now_ to note that the monster gave off no discernible odor. Rather odd when you considered that it looked like an animated charred corpse.  Going by visual clues alone the thing should be stinking up a storm.

Maybe it used deodorant?

That there was a nonsensical avenue of inquiry worthy of Flash himself and as good a sign as any that it was well past time he pulled himself together.

  
The Question's peripheral vision picked up John Dee tilting his head in slow motion. The dream meister's mouth was a firm line of concentration.

  
The wicked claws came closer.

Dee practically gritted his teeth.

The claws stopped. Retracted.

  
_Interesting._

  
After a moment, The Black Flash moved back to restart it's repetitive search pattern for the missing West. It seemed to be getting increasingly frustrated. Very not good. Sage figured he'd better try to alert Bruce Wayne of his hypothesis before the man literally made a wrong move.  Last thing they needed now was a slip up.

.

Batman risked tracing a single finger over one of his utility belt pouches as he considered what in his arsenal might possibly work against an ultra-fast Grim Reaper. A gravity trap would have been his first choice, but he hardly had one stashed on his person...they were too big. Ray Palmer was working on miniaturizing some of the better Wayne Tech designs, but that would take The Atom weeks or even months of further research to even consider making a working prototype.

  
It was a pity, for in this case size did matter.

  
"Don't move. Speak short. _Slow_."

  
Out of the corner of his eye, Bruce observed that Vic was following his own monotone and painstakingly-drawn-out advice, still holding his untouched pad and the poised writing instrument as before, but not actually utilizing either of them.

  
Batman wasn't known as one of the most intelligent men living for nothing; The Dark Knight intantly stilled his hand. He kept his eyes on The Black Flash as he asked sotto voce, "Reason?"  Not that his own mind wasn't making it's own conclusions based on the facts.

  
"Attraction. Speed Force," The Question cooly answered.   (A sarcastic ' _As you know full well from talking with Barry'_ was implied rather than actually stated aloud, but Wayne caught it nonetheless.  An impatient Vic clearly expected Batman to at least be on his A game here and thought it possible he wasn't. _)  
_

  
Batman frowned, not liking Sage's implication that he had become asleep at the wheel much like Jabberwocky had become unhinged with his obsession over West.  Nighthawk was not Jabberwocky.  A background worry over his younger team mate notwithstanding, his head was clear.

_The monster seems to have expanded upon its selection of prey to beings beyond it's own specialized category. I can almost hear Wally's voice joking that it mu_ _st be due to a speedster's appetite: when hungry enough, they'd eat anything even a goat would pass on as inedible._

"Speedsters"

  
"Speed use." Vic corrected in a forcefully unhurried manner. He breathed as slowly and as evenly as possible as he explained his theory in carefully modulated bursts. (The last thing he wanted was a dancing date with The Black Flash.) "Wally hit us with it. Couldn't have foreseen. Meant to help...but...after him."

  _Out of the frying pan and into the fire._

  
Batman's lips thinned. He'd already come to the same conclusion.  A well-intentioned action by Flash which had saved them from being shot had accidentally left them rather screwed in another more wildly unique way.

   
In a panic to save them from the fired bullets, Wally had instinctively reacted to the danger. He'd increased Vic and Bruce's relative speed long enough to take them out of the projectiles' paths--presumably much the same way as Wally had days ago stolen speed from the LexCorp building he'd been held in.  While Wayne supposed they should be grateful they were not both flying towards outer space; a different side effect had resulted:  they were still radiating the residue of Flash's ipromptu gift...the universal-dimension Speed Force that The Black Flash associated with it's vanished prey.

It saw them as...if not exactly _Wally_...then some sort of cousin to him.

  
To the macabre speedster, Vic and Bruce were _potential_ targets. True, they were in all probability merely temporarily speed enhanced, but if the monster was having trouble differentiating real speedsters from accidental ones, such subtle nuances as 'real' or 'artificially flavored' would hardly matter.  It was intriguing possibility:  that each speedster added it's own unique (for lack of a better word) 'aroma' to the Speed Force he or she used. This scent could be how The Black Flash identified one speedster from another. If that was the case, Wally had inadvertently sprayed them with his _unique_ speed identity. Not just artifically flavored, but flavored using the secret family recipe.  In affect they smelled both incredibly edible and yet at the same time inedible, confusing it.  Sure, the Black Flash would in all likelihood realize its mistake. Fat lot of good that would do Bruce or Sage, just as it had not saved the unfortunate Jabberwocky.

 

So they had a working hypothesis on what had happened since Jabberwocky lost all reason and common sense.  The problem was how to make use of the knowledge they'd gained so that they didn't similarly get taken.

Bruce could only hope that The Black Flash did not share The Scarlet Speedster's fault of impatience.

* * *

  
_Ignore them_ , Doctor Destiny tersely commanded.  He was already straining his mind just to keep the monster in sight. The sheer effort needed to see things that existed outside the normal speed most humans were accustomed to was giving Dee the mother of all headaches and he was tempted to just let the creature go and do whatever the hell it felt like doing.  It wasn't like he held any love for The Justice League or its allies.  Zero tears would be shed on his behalf if these two were consumed.

  
Normally, Dee had no problem with influencing The Black Flash's behavior or difficulty seeing the damned creature. However, this time it was proving hard to keep the thing from sliding out of his vision range.

His normally reliable back-up battery of _extra-dimensional_ energy kept fluctuating.  That was not only annoying...it was downright disquieting. Dee could only speculate that his power source was preoccupied with something else and that the distraction was leeching away the vitality levels he needed for this very laborous work.

  
As much as Dee would enjoy seeing these two League members get taken, The Three were angry enough as it was. Dr. Destiny dared not go against them again so soon. Galling as it was to admit, right now they held Dr. Destiny's destiny in their hands.  A pity about Batman and Question though since the brute he was attempting to direct was getting irritated with being restrained; it would be so easy to just let it at the two vigilantes.

The Black Flash was the ultimate tracking dog-- _a half-wild, unpredictable, somewhat intelligent and highly dangerous tracking dog_. It did not care who got in the way of it and its prey and that included its supposed master. Not usually an issue as Dee was ultra careful when it came to self preservation.  Unfortunately, the thing also possessed emotions along with a rudimentary intelligence: it radiated satisfaction or anger depending on the results of it's hunt.

  
This time was different and it was making Dee sweat.

The Black Flash was not used to feeling frustrated. What it went after it invariably had seized with little appreciable effort. Now it had been thwarted and this new experience was making it even more volatile than ever.

  
As his name might connote, Doctor Destiny did not at all appreciate the concept of _unpredictability_.

* * *

  
  
_It had the scent/taste/touch of a particular vibration etched on what passed for its mind--and oh how The Black Flash itched to consume it!  So aggravating that the strongest source of this world's tantilizingly flavored Speed Force had disappeared along with another scent: an unsatisfying oscillation that it had not been given the urge to go after, but which it had taken anyway because...._

-Ignore...

_Not that it wouldn't pounce on anything if the target became too tempting for it to ignore._

...them-

  
_Right now the only remaining scent of its prey was split into two continuous sources that it sensed were not quite right, but were the only thing its hunting urge had to center on. Mere moments before it had consumed a scent similar to one of these when the real prey had suddenly disappeared before its claws could grasp it. This strangeness of having others with the identical vibration of non-prey mixed with that of the particular speedster/prey's...well, for that vibe to persist even after consumption of the first was confusing. It wanted to take the two not-quite-prey scents if only to clear the air and find again the truest, strongest trail of Speed Force._

  
_This situation was beyond anything it had ever experienced. Before, a vibration became stronger than any other to the point of distortion and it went after that. Maybe-if the prey gave a bit of a fight there would play with it before striking. Usually, though, it's particular vibe was summarily consumed with little to no protest, leaving Black Flash to wait for another strong vibration/scent/touch/taste to present itself. Simple enough actions and they brought it a feeling of contentment._

  
_The Black Flash wanted more of that contentment. Why was it so hard to attain this time?_

  
_Find and pursue the chosen prey! Find and pursue!_

  
-Yes, go after the strongest essence.  Find Wallace Rudolph West-

_The alien thought suddenly in its mind agreed with its own instinct._

_-Touch  the Wallace Rudolph West and send him to The Three-_

  
_Easier thought than done. The prey was gone as if it had never existed._

  
_Frustration: no strong scent found._

_Consume odd scents._

_Clear the vibrations.  
_

  
_-Ignore them. Find the other trail.-_

  
_Pursue!_   
_No trail found._   
_Pursue!_   
_No trail found._

  
Like a faulty computer program on loop, impulses had become cyclical with the only result being the continuation of denial.

The Black Flash gnashed its teeth, unused to indecision.

_Angry._

_Angry._

_Angry!_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Interestingly enough there is a Black Flash in the comic book series adapting future 'seasons' of Smallville that more closely mimics mine than the one postulated by Geoff John's in Flash Rebirth (2009) and in the Flash tie-ins to The Black Lanterns do.
> 
> Mind, I haven't read more than a few publicly made scans, but that BF apparently also is more like an intelligent animal than just some zombied supervillain. Maybe one day I'll purchase just that arc of stories with Bart even if I don't care for that Bart (or for that matter their Jay either besides his neat costume.)

**Author's Note:**

> Spaces. For some unfathomable reason the editor keeps adding extra blank lines to the same spots even if I rewrite the entire section. I can't figure it out and its getting annoying.


End file.
